BATON ROUGE, La.
– Since Hurricane
Katrina and Rita
devastated Louisiana,
nearly $3 billion in
Public Assistance funds
have been dispersed
throughout the State of
Louisiana to communities
affected by the 2005
storms, officials from
the Governor’s Office of
Homeland Security and
Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP)
announced today.
“Before the end of
February, this agency
will have put $3 billion
on the street in 27
months. No other state
in the history of the
United States has
dispersed more federal
public assistance funds
in such a compressed
time frame,” said Col.
Jeff Smith, director of
GOHSEP, “I am proud of
the men and women of
this agency for making
this achievement
possible.”
“Our state has lived
through the most
devastating natural
disaster ever to occur
on US soil and we as a
state will continue our
commitment to work with
these communities to
assist in the recovery
process,” he added.
GOHSEP and its partners,
the Louisiana
Legislative Auditors,
the Division of
Administration, State
Inspector General and
the Office of the
Treasurer has
administered more than
24,000 payments totaling
$3 billion dollars in
Public Assistance Funds
which covers around
11,300 Project
Worksheets (PW) for
Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita.
“We have a very
dedicated staff of
specialist working
diligently with a
commitment to customer
service to ensure
payments are made to the
applicants in a timely
manner,” said Steve
Terry, section chief of
public assistance.
The funds that have been
distributed throughout
the state have been used
for variety of repairs
which include, but are
not limited to:
The
Federal Emergency
Management Agency
(FEMA) works with GOHSEP
and local offices to
assess the exact nature
of the damage and
develops the best plan
to address the issues.
FEMA and the State share
the responsibility for
making Public Assistance
Program funds available
to the applicant. FEMA
is responsible for
approving projects and
making the approved
Federal share of the
funding available to the
State.
On average, GOHSEP
releases anywhere from
$20 to $25 million a
week in public
assistance funds to
applicants. Once a PW
has been approved and
obligated by FEMA, the
money is placed in a
federal smart link
account for the state to
access as necessary to
reimburse its
applicants.
Although the length of a
full recovery for the
State of Louisiana is
still unknown, the
current estimate is for
at least an additional
10-12 years. Reported
schedules vary by Parish
from anywhere from 6
months to a decade
depending on the extent
of damages suffered.
GOHSEP estimates the
remaining FEMA public
assistance funding will
be over $6 billion.
